Hi everybody, Maddie is doing well and we feel recovering quicker than we had anticipated. Originaly the doctor had hoped to perform the surgery via a scope; however there was not enough room inside her little chest so they had no choice but to cut her. That coupled with the fact that her muscle condition would not allow them to use an oral anesthesia (instead they used narcotics to sedate her) turned a forecasted 2 day recovery period into a several day period.

Today she was still in some pain so they were still giving her some pain medicine and she still has a small tube coming out of the side of her chest to relieve any air that may have been introduced to her chest during her surgery. Aside from that she’s slowly being weaned off the ventilator (breathing tube down her throat) they had to put her on for the surgery (which is a very good sign). We are hopeful that by tomorrow night they will put her back on the C-PAP which is the breathing assistance applied through her nose and start sprinting her, which means they will put it on for a little bit and than take it off for a little bit, continuing this process until she no longer requires assistance.

They also anticipate being able to feed her formula tomorrow once they remove the ventilator which is another great sign that her digestive organs are recovering well from normal surgery trauma and sedatives.

Annie and I will be meeting with the genetics specialist tomorrow and we will update all you blog junkies as soon as we get home from the hospital tomorrow night.

The picture of Maddie was taken after her surgery, and Luke mentioned that we hadn't posted his picture yet and accused us of alreday picking a favorite so we felt we should let you all see him as well.

God Bless,

Richard and Annie